Lavender Morning (43 page)

“So Luke’s back,” Tess said. “Let me make a call and I’ll call you back.”

Ten minutes later, Joce was in her car and heading into Williamsburg for what Tess called an “emergency

appointment.” “I’m not that bad,” Joce had mumbled, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to look good for this

evening.

When Luke came to pick her up, he was in his car, a dark blue BMW sedan. He got out and came around

to open the door for her. “Wow! This is great,” she said as she slid onto the leather seat. “You said you wanted

your grandfather there because he’s a doctor. Are you being nice because you’re planning to tell me that I have

only six months to live?”

When he didn’t answer, she looked at him sharply. “Luke?”

“People’s lives change,” he said solemnly. “Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.”

“Now you’re scaring me.”

He reached out and took her hand in his. “Sorry for all the mystery, but it’s what I promised Gramps. Right

now I think he’s the happiest person on earth. We talked on the plane, and he told me how much he truly loved

Miss Edi. He can never say that around Nana, of course, but he did love her. Gramps said he and Edi spent their

entire childhoods together and it’s because of her that he became a doctor. After he saw her legs, he went back

to school on the GI bill, and…” Luke squeezed Joce’s hand harder. “You look different.”

“Tess sent me to a salon where I got plucked and dyed and buffed. It took hours and I was so nervous I

could hardly sit in the chair.”

“No, it’s not that, although I do like that pink polish. I’ve seen peonies just that color.”

He dropped her hand and put his back on the steering wheel. “There’s something else different.”

“I, uh, decided that I like you better than Ramsey.”

“Did you?” Luke said, sounding as though that meant nothing, but she could see the tip of his eyebrow

begin to twitch. So it wasn’t just lying that caused that, but also great emotion.

“I like you better than Ramsey too,” he said softly.

“Let’s ask him to be our ring bearer.”

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3/16/2010 et’s ask him to be our ring bearer.”

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Luke laughed. “That’s a deal. But only if he wears a powder blue velvet jacket.”

Jocelyn’s heart was pounding in her throat so hard that she could hardly breathe. She wasn’t sure, but she

may have just been proposed to. Or proposed to him. Whatever it was, she didn’t think she’d ever felt happier.

When they arrived at Dr. Dave’s house, every light seemed to be on, but the brightest thing was his face.

He looked as though he’d found the Secret to Life.

“I really wish you two would tell me what’s going on.”

“I thought we’d have some tea first,” Dr. Dave said.

“You have got to be kidding,” Luke and Joce said in unison, then broke into laughter.

“I’d be embarrassed to know where you two have been all afternoon.”

“In a hair salon,” Joce said.

“Taking a nap,” Luke said.

Dr. Dave looked from one to the other. “Well, something has happened.” He put up his hand. “Don’t tell

me. My old brain can’t take any more information.”

He turned to Jocelyn. “My grandson and I know most of what we’re about to tell you, but some of it we

can’t do until you know what we do. If you don’t want to wait until after tea, then I suggest that we have tea

while my grandson reads us the last part of Miss Edi’s story. Are you ready, Jocelyn?”

“Is the tea hot?”

“Steaming.”

“Then I’m ready.”

24

ENGLAND

1944

I
AM FEELING A bit peckish,” Hamish said at breakfast, and both Edi and David had to hide smiles.

“Peckish” was English slang for hungry, and if there was anything the man could do, it was eat. At first he’d made

some comments on David being a traitor because it was Italian food and Italy was on the German side.

“If you don’t want to eat it…,” David said as he started to take the plate away, but Hamish reached for it.

“I guess it won’t hurt the world to eat one plate of spaghetti.”

“That’s—” David began, but stopped. Why bother to tell the man the difference between pizza and

spaghetti and pasta in general? He was glad when the old man disappeared into his room right after breakfast.

That morning Edi had found a broken-down old greenhouse at the back of the barn. It had been nearly

covered with dead vines, and when she’d hacked through them, she’d found the glass house, and inside were

tomatoes that had reseeded themselves. The vines had kept the soil warm through the winter, and their lack of

leaves in the spring had let the sunlight in.

“I could kiss you for these,” David said, picking up one of the precious globes from the little basket Edi

held out to him. “In fact, I could kiss you for anything at all.”

She backed away so the table was between them, but she was smiling. “Don’t you know that I’m the

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3/16/2010 e backed away so the table was between them, but she was

Jude Deveraux - Lavender Morning.html smiling. “Don’t you know that I’m the

Untouchable One?”

“I heard that,” David said in a husky voice as he moved toward her, but this time Edi didn’t move away.

But David’s stiff leg caught on the corner of a chair and he went into a spin that almost made him fall. He

caught himself on the edge of the table, then sat down heavily. “I hope Austin rots in hell,” he muttered as he

rubbed at his sore leg. “How can a man do any courting with this thing on?”

When Edi said nothing, he turned to look at her, and she had a strange look in her eye.

“What’s going on in that little mind of yours?”

She scratched at her head. Today she hadn’t bothered with trying to style it. She’d just let it hang loose

about her shoulders, and when it got in her way she shoved a couple of Aggie’s barrettes at the sides. Between

her too-big shirt and her too big trousers that were belted at her waist, and her dark hair about her shoulders,

David thought she looked magnificent. If it weren’t for his leg he would have made a move toward her before

now.

“I need a bath,” Edi said. “I think I got something from the chickens in my hair.”

“I saw some kerosene in the barn. Should we use that?”

“No,” Edi said, smiling. “I’m going to take a bath in the river.”

“That’s not a good idea. It’s still swollen, and the current is—”

He didn’t say any more because he heard the door close behind Edi. When he went to look out the

window, he saw that she was running. Obviously, she was on a mission, but he wondered what it was. When she

came out of the barn a few minutes later and she was carrying two coils of rope, he knew exactly what she was

thinking of doing.

“No,” he said when she came into the kitchen. “No, no, double no. If you try that I’ll hike out of here and

find a telephone and tell Austin what you’re planning to do.”

“Can you tie good knots?”

“No,” David said firmly as he sat down on a chair.

“Okay, then we’ll have to make do with my knots.” She put the end of one of the ropes around her waist

and tied it. “There. Nice and strong, isn’t it?”

David reached up, grabbed one end of the knot, and pulled. It came loose easily.

“Maybe I should tie it in three loops.”

“Please don’t do this,” David said, his voice almost tears. “It’s not worth it. We have one more day, then

Aggie will be back, we’ll get the magazine, then—”

“What about this knot?”

David pulled both ends, and they were tight.

“Perfect,” she said. “We’ll use that one.”

“And what if you get caught down there and want to get out?” he asked, his voice low. “Do you take a

knife with you and saw at the rope?”

“Then
you
fix it,” she said, “and I don’t want any lectures about why I shouldn’t do this. I’m a great

swimmer.”

“Edi,” he began, refusing to get up from the chair. “This is very noble of you, but I don’t want you to do

this.”

Bending, she put her lips to his and kissed him. “We have very little time left,” she said, “and how can you

make love to me with that thing on your leg? I’m going to do this no matter what you say, but I’d very much

appreciate your help with it all.”

David was so stunned by what she’d said that it took him a moment to react. When she started to walk

away, he caught her wrist and pulled her to him so she landed on his lap.

He kissed her. Gently, then with increasing passion, his kiss deepening. “I fell in love with you the moment I

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first saw you,” he whispered. “It was like I knew you from somewhere. Heaven, maybe. I knew you were mine

and always will be.”

She ran her hand along his cheek. “I detested you.”

David chuckled. “You sure know how to make love to a man.”

“Sorry, but I know nothing in that department, but I’ve been told that I’m a fast learner.”

He kissed her some more, his hands in her hair.

Then the spell was broken when Edi moved away to claw at her scalp. “There’s something crawling in my

hair, so I’m going to jump in the river to wash it, and I might as well get that Allen wrench. Are you ready?”

When he frowned and looked as though he was about to again ask her not to go, she put a fingertip over

his lips. “Think on the bright side. I might not find it. It could be in the Thames by now and you’ll be in that brace

for the rest of the war.”

David put his hand on the kitchen table and heaved himself up. “Lead the way.” He was trying to sound

jovial, but she could hear the fear in his voice.

“Come on,” she said, teasing, “I have the buggy already hitched.”

“Buggy,” he said, smiling as he followed her out the door. Maybe ol’ Hamish had a car buried under that

mess in the barn and Edi’d found it. Maybe—

All good thoughts stopped when he saw Edi drive out of the barn in a contraption that looked like it was

made in the 1890s. It was a horse carriage with two big wheels in back and two smaller ones in the front. There

was a frayed and worn padded seat in the front and what looked to be a standing area in the back. Hamish’s old

horse was tied to it with lots of leather straps, and Hamish himself was standing to the side, looking so pleased he

was almost smiling.

“You know how to use it, do you?” he asked Edi, who looked as though she’d been born sitting on a

buggy.

She had a long whip in her hand and she gave it a snap over the horse’s head, then a few clicks, and the

animal moved quickly in a perfect circle.

“Oh, aye,” Hamish said, “you know how to drive.”

“I have about a hundred ribbons and trophies at home,” she said. “Oh, but look at him, how he loves it.”

She was referring to the horse—certainly not David, who was already backing toward the house.

“That he does,” Hamish said as he lovingly stroked the horse’s nose. “He won many a race in his time, and

he remembers them. The war people said he was too old to be of any use to them, but he’s got a lot in him yet.”

“We won’t be long,” Edi said. “David’s going to tie me to the bridge and I’m going back into the car to get

some things. Maybe we can get that horrible contraption off his leg.”

“Don’t need it, do he?” Hamish said.

Edi smiled at the top of the man’s head. He may be old, but he saw a lot. “Come on,” she called to David.

“Hamish will help you get up on the back. You’ll need to hold on when we go downhill, but I think you’ll be all

right.”

“Think we should tie him on?” Hamish asked.

“No, I do not need to be tied on,” David said, making Edi and Hamish smile at each other. It was easy to

see that David thought the buggy might as well have been a mastodon. To his eyes, it was old and dangerous.

Since the old horse was dancing about, remembering the days when he was young and fast, it took

Hamish’s help to get David up on the buggy. The back of it was flat and open, so it couldn’t be used for carrying

things. There were a couple of handles, but it was difficult for David to sit, his leg out straight, and hold on to

them. “What good is this thing? You can’t carry anything with it.”

“What good is a race car?” Edi asked, and Hamish nodded.

“All right, girl, take her down. But be careful. He pulls to the right.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let him,” she said, then clicked to the horse, who took off as though someone had

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fired a starting pistol.

In the back, David hung on with both arms and the jarring made the steel cut into his skin, and his teeth

were rattling together. “Do you have to go this fast?” he yelled up at Edi, but all he heard was her laughter.

To David, it seemed about three hours before they reached the river, but it was only a few minutes. They

could have walked through the woods, but with David’s leg that would have been torture.

He could see that the water had receded enough that it no longer went over the bridge, and to one side he

could see the bottom of the tires of the car. If the water kept going down, within a day or two half of the wheels

would be visible.

By the time he got down from the buggy, Edi was already tying a rope about her waist. He brushed her

hands away and redid it. “Listen to me,” he said softly. “If anything goes wrong and you want me to pull you up,